nomadreader

Hi, again, Today I'm celebrating my birthday (I'm 38, which is not an especially exciting age, but the next benchmark age is still two years away.) I like birthday a lot, and I tend to get pretty sentimental as I celebrate. Birthdays are how we mark time, and each year, I spend much of my birthday reflecting on the past year (or, when I turned 30, the past decade) and feeling grateful for all the big and little things in my life. I'm on vacation from work today and spending it by myself, which is even better for my reflection. After I dropped Hawthorne off at school, I took myself out to breakfast. A lazy Monday morning breakfast is somehow more decadent than a weekend one. I'm treating myself to one of Taylor Jenkins Reid's backlist novels (I'll have one left when I finish this one):  Maybe in Another Life , which imagines two different paths for its protagonist Hannah. Perfect for my reflective birthday, right? Later today, I'm getting a much-needed...

In my continued attempt to catch up on reviews, here are mini-reviews of two films I've seen this fall! The Queen of Versailles I expected The Queen of Versailles , a documentary detailing how billionaires Jackie and David Siegel react when they must stop building their dream home, the largest home ever built in the United States, to highlight their excesses. I did not expect this tale of lavishness (and to some extent cluelessness) to make me feel guilty for my own excess. This documentary is extraordinary in two ways: when filming began, the market had not yet collapsed, and the Siegels were living preposterously large. Their demeanors change, just as their lifestyle must, as the film progresses. Yet beneath all of their extravagance is a warning of scale: our financial position is precarious, even at my much, much more minimal level of income. It made me question what living within your means actually means--across all income levels. It's not all serious, however...